Many electronic products include high-density printed circuit boards (PCBs) that are densely populated with electronic components. Because of their complexity, it is generally desirable to subject each PCB to a thorough test prior to additional assembly operations that may act to make the PCBs inaccessible.
Automated testing is generally considered desirable because of the high testing speed and accuracy attainable through automation. In order to ensure access to required signals on a PCB under test, a test connector is sometimes provided that aggregates desired signals within a small area of the PCB. It is known in the art to use edge connectors, for example, in order to provide test equipment access to these signals.
A physical electrical connector may also be utilized to provide the necessary interface with selected electrical signals on the PCB under test. To perform a test sequence, an operator plugs a mating connector into the test connector provided on the PCB. For testing some kinds of PCBs, a sequentially applied probe is sometimes used to make electrical contact with isolated test pads provided on an exterior layer of the PCB under test.